1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to a method and apparatus for photographing using a plurality of sensors in a photographing device (e.g., a depth camera) or an electronic device including the photographing device.
2. Description of Related Art
With the recent growth of digital technologies, various types of electronic devices are being widely used such as mobile communication terminals, smart phones, tablet Personal Computers (PCs), Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), electronic organizers, notebook computers, wearable devices, digital cameras, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, game devices, audible devices, etc.
In recent years, a 3-Dimensional (3D) camera (e.g., a depth camera) capable of photographing a 3-dimensional image or an electronic device (hereinafter, referred to as a depth camera device) including the same is being provided. The depth camera device is being commonly used in various fields requiring user's body recognition, face recognition, etc., as well as 3-dimensional image photographing. For example, the depth camera device can recognize a movement (or motion) of the body of a user (e.g., a body, a face, a hand, a finger, etc.) and provide depth information (or distance information). This depth camera device can be commonly divided into a Time Of Flight (TOF) scheme and an Infrared (IR) pattern scheme.
The TOF scheme can refer to a scheme of determining a distance to a subject through a TOF sensor and photographing a depth image. The TOF sensor can determine the distance to the subject by measuring a time taken until Infrared (IR) is reflected and returned from the subject after being transmitted to the subject in a plurality of cells each having an array of a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit. The TOF scheme can employ an algorithm of simply measuring only a distance, and has an advantage that its structure is simple and image processing is fast.
The IR pattern scheme (i.e., structured light scheme) can refer to a scheme of photographing a depth image by irradiating IR into a subject in a certain pattern and recognizing a shape of a thing corresponding to the irradiated IR pattern.
As a conventional depth camera device uses a camera of a fixed viewing angle and uses power of a fixed IR light source including the coverage thereof, even an unnecessary region other than a region where a subject exists actually is included in an IR light source projection region. So, the conventional depth camera device has a problem in which power efficiency is deteriorated. For example, the depth camera device or a system utilizing the depth camera device can cause unnecessary power consumption because irradiating a certain IR light source in no consideration of a viewing angle dependent on a use distance. Further, in a mobile device, a battery power consumption issue is of much significance. So, this existing indoor system can be very difficult to be applied to the mobile device.